Working out at night

[buksing_king]

Hey there everyone

I was wondering if it is ok to do light - medium workouts before bed

I currently do 40 push-ups , 25 straight crunches , 25 left crossover crunches and 25 crossover crunches to the right before I hit the sack ....... (go to bed ) hehehe:p Oh yeah i drink 2 glasses of water aswell.

I was wondering if anyone knows if it will keep you awake ......... help you get to sleep ........ or do anything else .

Peace

[guohuen]

Sounds great to me. If it interferes with your sleep, try either increasing or decreasing the time a little.

[Ford Prefect]

Supposedly your body will remain at an amped up state for a few hours after a workout. (sorry, but I'm tired so please excuse the lack of technical terms) This can intefere with your sleep. If it doesn't, then don't sweat it. That really doesn't look like enough volume to interfere anyway.

[red5angel]

It sort of depends on you really. They say you shouldnt work out roughly 2-3, sometimes 4 hours before bed. I say if you can and still sleep afterwards, dont worry about. There are no ill effects other then loss of sleep anyway.

[Silumkid]

buksing,

It really does depend on you. As you may know, no one responds to exercise in exactly the same way. I usually do my strength training around 6:30 pm and hit the rack around 10 pm. It works for me because I seem to recover pretty quickly, gives me plenty of time to wind down and eat, and I find i sleep better after I've had a productive exercise bout.

I have a friend, though, who has to do her strength training in the morning. She feels more focused then, and also seems to be a "great out of the gate but not long on stamina" type.

Find what works for you.

[marycatherine]

What about having a short cool-down after those crunches...like a short meditation or something to calm your body down?


MKG

[Johnny Hot Shot]

Is fine if you don't mind not being able to sleep.
Optimaly spreading your training out through out the day is best. 30 minutes her 45 minutes there daily and perhaps an hour or 3 here and there though out the week. It ultamately comes to what you want to achieve in your training. Just practise? Do you want to lose weight? Do you work at night?

[ElPietro]

Ok these guys are right about the fact that it can interfere with sleep. But there is another problem, depending on your goals.

The first 4 hours roughly is the peak period your body is producing HGH (human growth hormones) and if you are doing these exercises to gain mass, then your body will be depleted of fuel to take advantage of the HGH release. So your body will be trying to repair itself, but you have now depleted your muscle glycogen from your workout. So it starts to take fuel from protein sources which will lead to an overall decrease in muscle mass. So at least try to get a small snack into you as well...

[Brett Again]

ElPietro makes an interesting point about the snack.

If you are going to exercise before sleep, then you must eat before sleeping. You don't want all your reserves depleted and then go to sleep for eight hours. Very unproductive (at best) for whatever it is you're trying to accomplish with your workouts.

I work out in the evenings all the time. However, I always am awake for at least two -three hours afterwards. Usual is finish workout by 9PM, but don't go to bed until 11. In that time I wind down, watch TV, eat my dinner, and beat my children.

[lowsweep]

It's usually considered best to work out in the middle of the day so your muscles have been stretched some and they will be stretched some after the workout just by using them. However, regarding sleep, I worked out before I went to bed for 2 years. I would be dead when I went to bed and going to sleep took about three seconds.

[lowsweep]

Also, when you are sleeping your digestive system slows way down. If you are trying to build muscle, it is much harder to get protein to your muscles when you are sleeping. Taking protein peptides right before the workout might do the trick (protein peptides are protein molecules that have already been broken down in part so they go straight to your muscles and bypass the digestive system)

[buksing_king]

Ok then ,,,...

I guess i'll workout around 6-7 pm. Sounds like a good time and seems to be logical. Though I have been doing this workout for 1 month does this mean my arms are getting weaker and stomach less muscular because i do 40 push-ups and some crunches >?

I used to only be able to do 20then 30 and now 40 so I don't think so ....

Anyways i don't know much .........yet ... so i guess i'll just take advice from the people who have been there and done that

[Repulsive Monkey]

Froma Chinese medicine point of view it could be detrimental depending of several factors. Night time or the evening is the Yin part of the day where Yang is naturally meant to be dominated by Yin. So by forcing too much Yang activity one can cripple all Yin energies which can result in insomnia, shen disturbance, and of course Kidney Yin deficieny and Kidney Jing deficiency (over a long time).

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

that was funny sh!t bret.

i also work out late at night. i don't get home on weekdays until 9pm so unless i manage to train before work, which is very rare and even then it's only half my workout, i have no choice.

on the downside i get 3 - 6 hours of sleep a night on avarage. this is usually due to fu ckin around on kfo, playing video games, or reading though.